


A New Hope

by justices



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Angst, Angst and Feels, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hope, Kid Leo Fitz, Loneliness, Parent Melinda May, Parent Phil Coulson, Philinda - Freeform, Teen Angst, Teen Daisy, Teen Skye
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 14:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justices/pseuds/justices
Summary: Teenage Skye is looking for her biological mother to tie an end of years in the system, though events bring her on a whole other path. Will she finally find the definition of family?





	A New Hope

Raindrops were slowly started to hit the roof as Skye entered her attic room. Of the many foster home she had been in the sixteen years she had been walking on this planet, it was het fourteenth, not counting the orphanage she had been in until the age of five. She opened up her laptop and laid down on the old couch that was functioning as her bed. Somehow Ms. Green thought the Paul’s were a great placement for her to stay at, however, experience had it known to be otherwise. The programs on her laptop were slowly starting up. It was just an old one she managed to steal a few years back at the middle school when she stayed at the Jackson’s.

When Skye plugged in her hard drive she looked through a few documents she had retrieved from hacking into several government, not so secured, programs. Again like many nights before, she opened up the document that meant a great deal to her. It was a letter from her birthmother that was dropped off with her at the orphanage. A nun must have thought it would have been helpful to find her mother that way, yet it was a lost case.. back then. Skye was spending every minute and second available on the search on finding her birthparents, however it had been harder than she anticipated.

Tumbling and yelling from downstairs drew Skye’s attention and she quickly hit her clothes on top of her laptop as she closed it. She waited a second, but there was nothing to worry about, probably just Erik and Jackson Paul, the two oldest boys of Mr. and Mrs. Paul. There were both into playing football and were roughhousing every now and then. Skye praised the fact that they were never paying never too much attention to her. Sadly, it had not been like that in all the foster homes she had been in. Back to her laptop, she looked at the note from her birthmother:

_‘Find someone who can keep her safe.’ _

Those words never failed to get that awful lump in her throat. The little heart next to the last word and the style of the words told Skye it was her mother who had written the small note. A million questions constantly raced through her mind. What was it that scared her mother enough to leave her newborn at the worst place possible? Sure, the nuns had all their great intentions to find little Skye, or Mary Sue Poots as they named her, a home, but it had been without any luck. There were only two couples in her life that had considered to adopt her, but it sadly did not work out. It was all a matter of time for her to turn eighteen, or to be replaced, again.

Someone was making their way up the stairs to the attic and Skye was quick enough to hide the laptop under her bed. The door was opened without a bother to knock, and an older woman made her way into the attic room. ‘Skye, how many times do I have to tell you that you need to keep your shit in your room? I don’t want to find your shoes, your food, or anything else of you downstairs. Was I not clear enough when I told you that this is our house? You are a guest here. You need to be grateful.’ Mrs. Paul lectured as she walked around the room inspecting it, picking up Skye’s personal belongings that were on the crooked shelf that was almost falling apart.

Skye nodded. ‘Yes, Mrs. Paul. I am sorry, it won’t happen again.’

‘Exactly what I thought.’ Mrs. Paul said opening a small closed container and smiled. ‘Oh my, what do we have here? You shouldn’t have.’ The twenty dollar bill disappeared into the bra of the woman and she turned around. ‘Good talk.’ And with that she headed back downstairs, the door closing with a hard slam.

Skye sighed. It wasn’t her who left the food out, who left their shoes downstairs. It were the Paul’s children, if it wasn’t the older boys, it could have been their youngest: Calvin Paul. Cal hated Skye, and at just thirteen years old, he took all the effort to make her disappear from the household. Luckily, the Paul’s needed the money they would get from the government for having Skye in their home, so Mrs. Paul just blamed Skye for Cal’s actions, and Mr. Paul just ignored her overall.

It was silent downstairs and Skye’s watch told her it was getting late. There was enough time to do her homework, but then it was really time for her to go to bed. She couldn’t afford to go to bed too late, people at school would question things, that was simply not an option.

**-x-**

Last period was cancelled. A park was located between the local high school and the Paul’s house giving Skye the chance to spend the hour there to work on her laptop and see if there were any potential people to borrow some money from. The park was large for the area. In front there was a playground for children, completed with swings, a playhouse and a large sandbox. Through the greenery of trees and bushes there was a path that was barely noticeable from the streets that lead to the pond where old people would hang out now and then to feed the ducks and talk. Skye needed the money to save up and run away from the Paul’s to the orphanage in Boston to find out more about her biological mother. Skye knew it was a long shot, but was hopeful that the nun who found her remembered more about the night she found baby Skye.

At the park she worked on her homework for half an hour before seeing a man walking his dog. There were no other people around, even the children on the playground with their parents and nannies were far enough to not see what would be going in a few minutes. It didn’t take long for Skye to pack up her things and rush from her seat to the path the man was walking. She put her hoodie on and kept her head low as she came closer, only to bump into him when he was about to pass her.

‘Oh, I am sorry!’ Skye said with an apologetic smile.

The man returned her smile and shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it!’

Unknowingly he kept on walking, and so did Skye.

She quickly made her way past the playground, and Skye checked the wallet she got from the guy behind a tree. Two twenty dollar bills, a fifty and some change, it was her lucky day. With the money in her pockets she walked out of the park to the stoplights where she waited for the green sign.

‘Excuse me?’ Skye turned around, since she was the only one standing there, only to see the man standing there with his dog. ‘Would you be so friendly to return what is mine, please?’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

The sign turned green. Skye wanted to make a run for it, but the man was quicker. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her back to the edge of the park, out of the sight for any strangers to see them.

‘You have to understand that I am not the kind of guy who would normally get physical with a young girl like you. I have daughter myself, and I would be very disappointed in her, not to mention upset, if she would decide take any actions like that.’ He told her while retrieving the wallet from her pocket. Skye was too flabbergasted to even move. What was he going to do? She could run, but chances were that he would file a report and in no time the cops would find out that it had been her. There were not many half Asian girls at the high school, heck, she was pretty sure she was the only one.

But that did not held her back to throw him some attitude. ‘I am sorry, okay? Can I go now? You have your wallet, your money, and whatever you need out of that ugly ass wallet.’

‘Excuse me? I don’t think you are in the position to talk to me this way, young lady.’ The man shook his head in disbelieve. ‘Do you live nearby?’

Skye paled. This was not something the Paul’s could hear a word of, or she would be flying back into the system. Maybe this would be the time for her to possibly be thrown into a home or even juvie. ‘Please don’t. I promise I won’t do it again, but you can’t go to _them_.’ She begged him. ‘Please..’

The man sighed, looked around and nodded. ‘I won’t, but understand that I live in this area as well, and taking from the fact that you were not going to the bus stop on this side of the street, and instead were headed to cross the road, you too live close nearby. So, tell you what? I let you go for now. But I will go to the police if I ever hear a word from you doing this again. Am I clear?’

‘You are, you are. I promise, you are.’ Skye sighed in relieve. This almost got her in a ton of trouble, but the guy was stupid to think she would never do it again. Mrs. Paul is still the same person, and Skye knew she would not stop stealing money from her.

She bit her underlip and swayed nervously from one foot to another. ‘Can I go now?’

‘You may.’

That was all Skye needed to hear for her to race back home, go to bed, and forget this almost horrifying ending.

**-x-**

Approaching the home of the Paul’s, Skye could immediately tell something was wrong. Ms. Green’s, her caseworker, her yellow cardigan was always to spot from miles away if not from space, therefore was seen by Skye at the end of the street. Though Skye had worse caseworkers before, Ms. Green was too happy for her taste, young, long, blonde, pretty, even naïf some would argue. The teen swallowed roughly as she slowly approached the house, knowing for sure that the man had gone to the police, and that she was in a tremendous amount of trouble because of it. Was this karma for stealing all that money from the people in the park? Off the streets? Heck, even at school? Only time would tell, and that time was now.

As soon as Ms. Green spotted Skye, she walked up to the young girl and smiled sadly. ‘I am so sorry, Skye.’

‘What is it? Why are you here? D-Did I do something wrong?’ She asked innocently, yet feared for the faith that was awaiting her, nervously rubbing her fingers together in her fists hoping for the best.

Ms. Green, who was known to be a happy peppy kind of gal, looked guilty at the girl. ‘There was an accident at the school. Calvin had been hurt and Mr. and Mrs. Paul called me to express their worry to be able to take care of you, Skye. I am sorry, but you will have to get your stuff so I can drop you off somewhere else.’

‘Where? Where are you taking me? The orphanage? A group home? Come on, Ms. Green.’ Skye frowned, annoyed at the emotions the woman was expressing through wards her. The woman knew, of all people, what Skye had been through. This was not her first rodeo.

‘Alright.’ Ms. Green said. ‘I have found a new foster home for you. They were actually waiting for another kid, but thankfully another couple has offered to take him in, since this family is willing to take all ages.’

That was enough for Skye to hear. She did not await for a further explanation. She knew the drill from here. It took her less than fifteen minutes to gather all her belongings from her room, throw it in her backpack and head back downstairs where Ms. Green was waiting for her. Skye did not bother to say goodbye to the Paul’s, all she was for them was a simple bonus to their bank account. It was time to move on and get ready for the next one.

**-x-**

They drove for almost half an hour, and the houses started to get bigger and bigger. The Paul’s just lived in an old neighborhood where nobody cared and the houses looked like they were a day from self-destruction, however it was not something that had ever bothered Skye since a roof above her head had always been enough. In this neighborhood, all the houses were detached from each other with large front and, assumingly, backyards who were well maintained with grass perfectly green, something Skye only had seen in movies. Children were even playing in the streets, something she also would have never seen at the Paul’s with the druggies on ever corner, still, it had never bothered her. What did was the house with the large driveway, a swing in the front yard, freshly mowed lawn like the other ones around and two cars standing side by side in front of the garage door. Skye could already tell this family was wealthy which meant money was not their motive to take her in. Personally, it always concerned her when people did that, since memories served no great experiences from the past.

The car came to a halt and Ms. Green got out of the car. Skye took a deep breath before taking her bag with her to follow her caseworker. At the front door Ms. Green already did the honors to ring the bell that was answered by an Asian woman. She smiled at Skye, then turned her attention to Ms. Green.

‘Hi there. I take you are Ms. Green?’

‘Yes, we spoke on the phone.’

‘Please, come in.’ The woman welcomed them into their home.

Once inside they walked through a hallway filled with pictures of the family and others that lead to a large living room. The Asian woman stopped and turned to Skye. ‘I am Melinda, nice to meet you. My husband is upstairs, he will be down shortly.’ She told her, smiling softly at her. 

‘Skye.’ The teen answered shortly looking around the living area, yes, she had been right. The family was rich. The room was filled with two large comfortable couches, two lounge chairs, a large flat screen and several gaming devices and two bookcases filled with tons of books, pictures, next to each side of it.

Melinda told Ms. Green and Skye to sit down and they both took place on the couch near the window that looked out over the front yard. ‘Would you guys like something to drink?’

Skye shook her head no, Ms. Green smiled brightly asking for some tea. ‘Alright, I will be right back.’ She walked away, but instead going through the door arches that lead to the kitchen, she walked to the hallway. They heard her yell for her husband to hurry up and come down, then passed them to the kitchen.

Ms. Green nudged Skye with her shoulder trying to cheer her up. ‘These are good people, Skye.’ She told her, again with a smile. ‘I know it is hard to believe, but I have a good feeling about them.’ She added in a whisper.

‘We will see.’ Skye shrugged as they heard footsteps coming from the stairs as Melinda also came back from the kitchen with two cups filled with tea and another one with coffee.

‘Excuses, excuses.’ The man said from the hallway. Skye did not bother to look up from her lap, this was not her first rodeo. All couples acted perfectly with Ms. Green around, it was all a matter of time for her to leave and for them to show their real selves. ‘A teacher’s work is never done, especially when you teach high schooler, am I right?’ He chuckled at his own little joke.

Melinda put down drinks for the adults on the wooden coffee table. ‘This is my husband. Come on, introduce yourself, Phil. We were waiting for you.’

‘Of course, my dear.’

This is where Skye looked up and slightly paled as the man approached her to shake her hand.

‘Phil Coulson, and you must be Skye. Pleasure seeing you again, away from the park.’ He smiled.

Fuck.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! Any comments and ideas are welcome!


End file.
